Red
Once upon a time in a far off land there lived a young girl named Serenity. She was a very pretty girl, with eyes and cool and grey as pools and skin as pale as snow. Her most prized feature was her hair, spun of the red earth itself, a trait that drew suitors to her from all across the land.
But Serenity remained ignorant of her suitor's desires.
And so it was one sunny day that her mother sent her on a trip through the forest with a basket of goodies on her arm to see her ailing brother, who lived very far away. She made sure to remind her daughter to look out for wolf-kin and other dangerous creatures that made their home along the forest path.
With no fear in her heart, Serenity set out, singing a happy tune, the sun only just beginning its upward ascent. She skipped through the village, where people watched her pass with waves and smiles, and through the fields, where farmers stopped to stare. At last she reached the forest just as the sun reached its highest point. It was a dark and haunted place, but Serenity felt no fear.
Into the woods she went, tress on either side of her, unaware of the eyes that watched her from the woods.
As serenity traveled onward she met a carter, a steady man whom was close friends with her brother. When he saw her he stopped his cart, though his donkey was restless and looked to the shadows in terror.
"What are you doing out here in the forest, Serenity? Don't you know it's dangerous?"
"Tristan," said she, "I am on my way to visit my brother Joseph, who lives beyond the wood. My mother sent me with a basket so that he may be well again."
"I just came from Joseph's house and he is doing much better. Come, Serenity, let's get you back to the village. The woods are dangerous at night and nightfall is soon."
But Serenity, being a kind girl who loved her brother with all of her heart, refused and went on her way.
XxX
In the shadows there watched a wolf-kin, who had seen Serenity's hair from afar and had come to covet her.
He was a wretched beast, with a mangy mane of straw colored hair and wicked grin. And even as he watched her from the shadow of the deep wood, in his black heart he hatched a plan that would allow him to make her his own.
Away he crept through the paths of the ancient wood that only evil things knew, and so it was that he came to Joseph's house before she.
In through the window he went, where he knocked the ailing Joseph out and gobbled him up whole. Then he took Joseph's clothes and fashioned for himself a disguise, that he might lie in wait for Serenity and make her his own.
XxX
Serenity met no one else in the vast wood, humming to herself all the way. Unaware was she that the world around her was silent and that the trees thinned out until she found herself upon a path.
At last she came to her brother's house where she knocked upon the door. From inside came a feeble answer.
"Come in!" said the voice, and Serenity became concerned, for if it were her brother he sounded ill indeed.
Into the house Serenity stepped, finding it unusually dark for her cheerful brother. But into the house she went, deeper and deeper until she came to his room.
"I brought you cakes, dear brother," upon the table she sat the basket and took a chair to his bedside, but he would not show her his face. "What is wrong?" she asked.
Her brother turned, though in the shadow she could not see but the vaguest impression of his features.
"Brother, what big eyes you have!"Serenity said, for though they were yellow they were too large and they glowed.
"Why, all the better to see you with!" He exclaimed with a barking laugh that turned into a cough, and Serenity's worry began to grow to an ill fear.
"Brother, what big hands you have," Serenity said again, looking upon the shape of the bed, worried more for her brother than for her own life.
"Why, the better to comfort you with when you are sad!" A long tongue darted out to lick a pair of chapped lips and a hand fell upon Serenity's shoulder.
Serenity shifted, but the wolf-king held her fast.
"What a long tongue you have," Serenity said at last.
"All the better to taste you with my dear," the voice of the wolf-kin rasped as he drew her to his person with one strong arm.
Serenity kicked and screamed but to no avail, and the wolf-kin's tongue flicked out again to lick her jaw. To her he whispered sweet lies about protection and loyalty, but the words fell on deaf ears, and Serenity rebelled with all her being.
XxX
And lo! From deep in the wood the Lady of the Forest heard Serenity's screams.
She was a wild woman who courted the forest and whose way was as untamed as the wood, but she loved that place and her heart was kind. Hearing the scream she came sprinting, weaving between the trees, the axe she used to chop wood still clutched in her palm.
Over fallen logs she raced, her fair face creased in concentration. She burst into the clearing, but hearing the screams had subsided into sobs she knew she must be cautious and clever.
Around the little hut she crept, and seeing the door was ajar she slipped in, following the voices so that she came to the room at the end of the hall. Into the darkness she peered, where she could see a massive and bloated shape pinning a struggling form to the mattress.
And remembering the days of her youth in which she had had her own innocence torn from her, the Lady of the Forest sprung forward and struck the beast on the back of his head with her axe.
Still, he did not die, and he spun to face her, snarling with all his rage and tried to undo her with the might of his claws and teeth alone, but Serenity hit him on the back of the head with the stool beside the bed, spending him to his knees.
So it was with one mighty swing the woman beheaded the creature and cut his belly open, allowing Joseph to spill forth, still alive.
XxX
Over the slain beast Serenity and the Lady of the Forest stood, but Serenity was no longer the girl she was and she knew she could not return home. So she helped her brother into bed and went into the wood to live with the Lady of the Forest, who taught her all she needed to know to survive.
And so it was that anyone who ventured through that wood would be protected for centuries to come by a brave clan of women, all who wore red hoods and carried axes to honor their matrons.
No wolf-kin were seen in the wood again, not even to this very day.